Lollapalooza 2010 Schedule Released

You’ve got a few of the following schedule conflicts to decide between:

The Black Keys vs. Hot Chip – Having seen the Black Keys in the Lollapalooza setting, timed to coincide with the hottest part of the day on the biggest stage farther away from me than I had ever wanted to walk, I found myself blown away by their ability to captivate a rather large crowd. Many of us sat in the trees at the edge of the park and listening attentively to some dirty, blues rock to get us through the heat. If you’re at a point in your intoxication where dancing is your vibe, then you’ll be at Hot Chip. But I’m guessing a lot of you will be relaxing somewhere to take in The Black Keys, which is likely where I would be if I was going to make it to the fest this year.

Lady Gaga vs. The Strokes – I guess this is an obvious choice for many and most people, but I’ve got a million dollars that both bands would be “surprising” (to say the least) at a festival of this size. Can The Strokes bring their minimal revivalist rock to a main stage festival and actually kill it? My money is on Lady Gaga for something that would be more worth the price of admission than the return of the Strokes looking too cool for school. I don’t care if you like her music or not; it’s a mainstage headlining act to see if I’ve ever heard one.

Green Day vs. Phoenix – You’ve got to go Green Day here. Phoenix is great and all, but we’re talking about living legends of our generation vs. that new band that got their song in a car commercial recently and it’s super catchy and stuff. Seems like en easy choice to me.

MGMT vs. Wolfmother – You’ll know if you read this site that I’m a huge MGMT fan, but there is no way that Wolfmother is an “act to miss” at a festival like this. MGMT cannot bring the rock in any way close to Wolfmother and you know it, so maybe you just want to relax and hope they play “Kids” so you can dance again. I’m calling Wolfmother, though; get back in touch with your Lollapalooza roots and do some crowd surfing while the band howls and screams Grant Park into a frenzy.

Arcade Fire vs. Soundgarden – This is a hard pick, surprisingly, because there are some Soundgarden songs that I don’t think I’d ever want to see live, especially in a festival setting where a mainstream mass of attendees would sing along (think “Black Hole Sun” as the obvious choice here). And Arcade Fire is obviously going to bring back some indie rock to the final day of the festival, and they’re promotion of their new album The Suburbs will be heavy in this festival set which could take away from it a bit. I would handle this the following way: watch Soundgarden at 8pm to start the set and hope like hell that they play “Spoonman” early in the set, then go watch the entire Arcade Fire set. There, that should handle it.

The Strokes were headlining festivals before Gaga even had her stage name (mind, that was only four years ago, but still). If you need any proof, see any video from their headlining sets at international festivals. Substance over style.

Phoenix have been a band since 1999. Not as long as Green Day, but they aren’t “new”. The only good reason to see Green Day would to hear their latter stuff.

Do your research son.

Dude

What rubbish!

The Strokes were headlining festivals before Gaga even had her stage name (mind, that was only four years ago, but still). If you need any proof, see any video from their headlining sets at international festivals. Substance over style.

Phoenix have been a band since 1999. Not as long as Green Day, but they aren’t “new”. The only good reason to see Green Day would to hear their latter stuff.